With the recent events in Spider-Man 700, it seems a great hero has fallen. But does the death of Peter Parker really matter?

Over the years, almost every major superhero has died in one way or another. Peter Parker is now dead not only in the main Marvel Universe, but in the Ultimate Marvel universe as well. Captain America was “killed” during the Civil War event, Batman during Final Crisis, Wonder-Woman, Wolverine, The Flash, Hawkeye; the list goes on. The difference is that in comics, just about everybody gets resurrected in time. For Superman, the absence was one of only a few months. For Captain America, 2 years. In the end though, most of them come back.

The majority of the characters who are truly dead start out that way like Thomas and Martha Wayne, Ben Parker or Abin Sur; characters who’s death in fact creates the hero. Others are killed...